


Shameless Karezi Fluff

by argentConflagration



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Christmas, Cohabitation, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/M, Humanstuck, Making Out, Not Humanstuck, Nudity, Post-Sgrub, Recuperacoon sharing, Treehouses, a different post-SGRUB AU, back massages, head massages, making out in closets, mentions of Jade♥Dave, mentions of Kanaya♥Rose, mentions of Karkat♦Kanaya, scalemate piles, shower kisses, water temperature problems
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-01
Updated: 2015-04-06
Packaged: 2017-12-22 02:39:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 6,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/907911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/argentConflagration/pseuds/argentConflagration
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is just a place to share a bunch of cute stories about about a particular angry troll boy and justice-loving troll girl.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ablution Trap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adorable shower shenanigans. Written for gratuitousWordsmith's birthday.

It’s the 48th day that you and Terezi are ‘together’ (not that you’re counting) that she pulls you into the ablution chamber and insists that you shower with her. 

"Come on, Karkat, don’t be such a baby, it’s not like we haven’t kissed before." She frowns. “I suppose I’ll have to resign myself to another depressingly Karkat-free ablution."

"No, let’s do this," you answer. “Just don’t make it weird. Who am I kidding, of course you’re going to make it weird."

You can feel heat on your face as you and she undress, and you step into the shower with no small amount of hesitation. 

"Can you even smell anything with the water running?" you ask as she turns it on.

"Nope!" she answers. “Unless I get really close." Without warning, she pushes you against the shower door and kisses you.

She cackles as she pulls away. “It’d be terrible if I let myself get distracted and forgot the purpose of this endeavor. Get your hair wet."

"The water’s still freezing!" you protest.

She holds out a hand to the stream. “No it’s not. This is a perfectly respectable temperature for showering at."

You groan. “Couldn’t you have thought about my warmer temperature before you dragged me into this?" 

She gives an exaggerated sigh. “Fine, I’ll turn it up since you’re being such a baby. Just because you’re adorable. Now get your hair wet and let me wash it."

When she puts hair scouring agent on her hands and digs her fingers into your scalp, it feels fantastic and you’re starting to think you don’t regret going along with this. You do the same to her immediately afterwards, making her hair poofy and white and twice its normal size. She looks ridiculous, and when you tell her that she retaliates by smearing lather down your front. At some point the bottle gets opened again, and the two of you end up covered in more foam than should ever be in one ablution chamber. 

"This is all your fault, by the way," you say, as you both try to rinse off simultaneously. 

"The court objects, Mr. Vantas, as you have failed to present any evidence that I am guilty of anything. On the contrary, you acted of your own free will and were fully complicit in these shenanigans."

"Fuck the court, you’re guilty as shit." You turn her around to help her rinse the last of the suds out of her hair, and end up with your mouth on hers. 

She wraps her arms around your neck and you put yours around your waist and you’re pretty sure you could stay like this forever. Disastrously, there’s a knock at the door.

"Hey Tez, you’ve been in there basically forever so if you could maybe respect the fact that there are other people who want to use the bathroom that would be great. On the other hand I can’t find Karkat anywhere so if you’re in there having sex with him I can’t say I’d be surprised or disappointed. I still need to pee, though."

"I have been in here for a period of time considerably shorter than forever, and I will be out soon," she responds. You decide to keep your mouth shut, and hurry to finish washing yourself.

That in no way stops Dave from giving you a knowing look when you come out of the ablution chamber together. 


	2. Responsibilities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was a scene from a larger story set after SBURB/SGRUB that I never ended up writing, but it stands on its own. Karkat's trying to carry the team on his shoulders, but Terezi knows he needs some sleep.

**> Be Terezi Pyrope.**

You are now Terezi Pyrope. The sun is already starting to come up, and you would normally be asleep by now, but today you have other plans.

You are concerned about your fearless leader. He hasn’t slept in days and he looks it. You have taken it upon yourself to rectify this situation.

You walk over to him, stopping too late to avoid bumping into him. You pretend it’s just because you’re blind, but the grin on your face says otherwise, so he glares and rolls his eyes at you.

You figure a direct approach couldn’t hurt.

K4RK4T, WH3N W4S TH3 L4ST T1M3 YOU SL3PT? >:[   
I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO SAY.  
YOU’RE GOING TO TELL ME I SHOULD LET MYSELF FALL UNCONSCIOUS INSTEAD OF WATCHING THIS GROUP OF PSYCHOTIC MURDERERS HAVING GHASTLY SOPORLESS DREAMS.  
I’M TRYING TO PREVENT THIS FROM TURNING INTO A COLOSSAL FAILURE FUCKUP BLOODBATH HERE, SO GO TO SLEEP AND ENJOY NOT HAVING RESPONSIBILITIES.  
HON3STLY K4RK4T WHY DO YOU M4K3 M3 PUT UP W1TH YOUR M1SPL4C3D L34D3R COMPL3X?  
B31NG 4 L34D3R DO3S NOT M34N K1LL1NG YOURS3LF!  
4ND PROP3R L34D3RS DO NOT ST4GG3R 4ROUND H4LF 4SL33P 4LL D4Y B3C4US3 TH3Y H4V3 TOO MUCH PR1D3 TO D3L3G4T3 R3SPONS1B1L1T13S!  
FUCK YOU, NO, I’M NOT MAKING YOU STAY UP ALL NIGHT INSTEAD OF ME.  
I DOUBT YOU WOULD DO IT ANYWAY, YOU’D PROBABLY BE ASLEEP BY NOON, AND THEN ERIDAN WOULD HAVE A BAD DREAM AND KILL US ALL.  
AND THEN HE’D GO DROWN HIMSELF OR SOMETHING EQUALLY IDIOTIC. BOOM, TOTAL PARTY KILL, BECAUSE KARKAT HAD TO TAKE A NAP.  
>:[  


Of course he’s too stubborn to be convinced. Time for your more forceful option.

**> Karkat: Convince Terezi to go to sleep.**

You immediately fail at this task.

I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TRYING TO DO, TEREZI.

You say this because Terezi now has her hands in your hair, and she is currently massaging your scalp with her fingers. She’s also standing close enough behind you that you’re touching, since she apparently has no concept of personal space.

H3H3, GOOD TH1NG YOU’R3 SO SHORT.  
STOP THAT, YOU WEIRDO.  


But you both know you’re pretty much spewing shit from your seedflap at this point, because instead of pulling away you kind of tilt your head back so that she can reach your forehead more easily. Maybe you wouldn’t have given in so easily if you weren’t so fucking stressed about practically everything, because if it wasn’t just like this sadistic game to put you through all that shit just to give you a planet where you’re all going to starve to your slow, painful deaths, and you can’t really deal with any of this right now.

So you focus instead on Terezi digging her fingers into your head and taking away the headache you didn’t realize you had. And now she’s rubbing at the base of your horns and maybe your leadership isn’t needed at this very moment. You kind of feel like you want to cry but that’s stupid.

She presses against your shoulders, unambiguously gesturing for you to sit down. She kneels behind you and pulls at your turtleneck to rub your neck with her thumbs, like scratching some deep-seated itch.

You feel her tongue on the back of your neck and it jerks you out of your stupor.

GAH!  
H3H3, SORRY, 1 COULDN’T H3LP MYS3LF.  
WHY THE FUCK AM I LETTING YOU DO THIS TO ME?  
4W, YOU KNOW YOU L1K3 1T. >;]  


She pushes you down so that you’re lying on your front, and digs her knuckles into your back. You feel a twinge of guilt. She didn’t have to do this, especially not for a worthless nookstain like you who let your relationship drop because you couldn’t sort out your own hideous confused feelings. You hate past you so much right now.

You push that thought aside, though, because for once in your life you’re too tired for self-loathing. Aside from the scratchy texture of your shirt, worn too much and washed too little, you could hardly ask for more. The girl you’re still hopelessly flushed for is giving you a massage, and you feel like such a douche for not just appreciating the fact that someone is doing something nice for you, and you don’t deserve it in the slightest. You are such an asshole.

At some point you lose track of sensation, and drift off. You dream of Terezi melting into you.


	3. Terezi's Treehouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post-game, trolls on Earth AU.
> 
> Inspired by an imagineyourotp post submitted by steampoweredcupcake: “Imagine your OTP building a treehouse together."

Terezi leans her head against you one evening, while the sun is just beginning to grow dim over the horizon, and whispers, “I miss my tree."

Surprised, you respond, “I guess I never really got why you liked living there."

"It was fun living high up! It was adventurous, but I still felt safe somehow."

"The humans have treehouses, too, you know. We could try it ourselves."

Her face lights up and she gives you a quick kiss. That’s how it begins.

* * *

When you go to the hardware store to buy what you need, you swear you get more funny looks for Terezi’s enthusiasm than for the fact that you’re aliens.

Terezi has a decent idea of what she’s doing—“I went through all this with the carpenter drones, remember?"—and you’re able to fill in the gaps by looking things up on the internet. All that’s left is lots of hard work measuring and carrying and climbing and hammering. An hour into it, you’re finally uncomfortable enough to take off your shirt, something that earns you more than a few interested sniffs from Terezi.

"Is that what it smells like?" she teases you. “Has Karkat Vantas finally deigned to remove his shirt outside the security of his respiteblock?" She’s put down her tools to get a cup of water, which she now brings over and offers to you.

You take a sip. “Shut up, it’s really hot."

“ _You’re_  really hot," she answers, which is so completely cheesy even you have to try hard not to groan, and she wraps her arms around your neck with enthusiasm. A little of the water in her cup dribbles down your back.

"You’re ridiculous," you say, and kiss her.

"You’re smiling, I can feel it, don’t lie," she mumbles against your mouth, before licking the inside of your cheek like the fucking adorable freak she is.

* * *

You break twice to eat, and you finish the bottom platform by nightfall. Since you both barely have the energy to move, Terezi decaptchalogues a few blankets and you curl up together right on the platform. Having adapted to the humans’ sleep cycle, you’re still getting used to it being colder outside during sleeping hours, and you huddle against Terezi for warmth.

"You poor thing," she says, pulling the blanket closer around you. “You must be freezing." She runs a hand down your back and you shiver. It’s more than a little bit colder than you expected.

"Thank you," she whispers. “Again."

"You’re insanely excited about this, aren’t you?"

"It’ll be so much fun! We can hang out up here, and hang scalemates from the tree, just like back on Alternia."

"Terezi, that is not a normal person’s idea of fun."

"No," she answers, “but you don’t want a normal person for a matesprit, do you?"

"No," you say quickly. “No, I really don’t."

Your cocoon of blankets shields you from the air, and together you stave off the cold of the night. 


	4. Midday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Really quick drabble. Takes place during SGRUB.

He was hurt, so she’d let him take the recuperacoon. But out on the bare floor, what little sleep she’d gotten had been troubled and shallow. The sun would start to set in a few hours, and she knew he’d want to get started as soon as the last ray disappeared over the horizon. She sighed, stood up, and paced the tiny room. 

Submerged up to his ears in sopor, he was calmer than she’d ever seen him. She brushed away a clump of damp hair that was plastered to his cheek. 

The recuperacoon was actually quite spacious, accidentally alchemized as an adult’s, with only one small child in it. Surely it wouldn’t be a big deal to slip in and get a few hours of shuteye. 

She stripped down to her underwear and crawled in next to him, facing his back. Unable to resist, she pulled a little closer and put her arms around him, his warm body against her cool one, her face in his hair. With every inhalation, she breathed in the scent of his bright, vital red. 

Eventually, she knew, he’d wake up, and probably wouldn’t be happy. But for now, to hold him like this, as if she were the one protecting him, was all she could ask for. 

She slept, dreamless, until the sun set. 


	5. Moments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pure fluff.

First, it was words of support, when he told you you were beautiful and didn’t have to look up to Latula. 

Then it was a tearful confession, when you had finally told him why Gamzee had been missing so often lately. 

Next, it was a comforting hug, when both of your quadrants had broken up with you at once, Dave because you told him about Gamzee, and Gamzee because you’d told Karkat.

After that it was a few kisses, stolen here and there from your better judgment that it was dangerous to jump right into another relationship so soon. But it wasn’t as if your feelings for him, even buried for a sweep under a mound of frustration and hurt, could go away in the blink of an eye. 

And now it’s a moment of quiet, the two of you curled up against each other on a pile of scalemates in your respiteblock. There’s no way you can possibly express your confused, conflicted feelings about him, so you settle for resting your head in the curve of his shoulder and drifting off to sleep. 


	6. Seven Minutes In Heaven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I decided to rewrite [this minific](http://badhoruss.tumblr.com/post/37691732032), by badhoruss/gratuitousWordsmith, from Terezi's perspective. Here's the result!

Seven minutes. Seven minutes. Seven minutes.

It repeats itself like a drumbeat in your head as you give Sollux a quiet low five behind his back, then turn and stumble your way into the coatroom. 

Fair and square, you earned seven minutes alone with Karkat, kissing implied as part of the nature of the game. Technically Sollux earned this for you, but that’s far from the point. The point is that you know how sweet and caring Karkat is when he can put up with the world for twenty seconds. The point is how much you want him to show that side to you. The point is that you’re already imagining the feel of his lips on yours. 

God, you have it bad. 

One more shove, and the door slams on you. Now’s your chance. You can’t waste any time.

You kiss him, and you realize that you should have thought this through a little more. You meant to be gentle, move slowly, give him time to get used to you. But it’s all happening so fast, and now you’ve got one hand in his hair and the other up his shirt and he’s all softness and warmth and you can’t help how much you want more and more of him. This is still within the rules, you tell yourself. You are allowed to kiss him, and he hasn’t told you to stop. So you take a breath and pull him closer.

But he stops you. “Terezi?"

You feel like he can see farther into you than anyone, exposing the things you can easily hide from the rest of the world. “What, Karkat? Is something the matter?"

"No, it’s just … you deserve better than this."

You let out a breath and laugh and speak all at once. “Kaaarkat that’s a thing of the past cooooome oooonnn!" You crush your lips against his again, and this time you maybe let your hands wander a bit more, and you pull him close and wonder how you can keep from ever letting him go. 

You can feel his enthusiasm now and it fills you from tip to toe with warmth and you think you might have even heard an ‘I love you’ in between eager breaths. You are never, ever letting him go. 

This is the best seven minutes of your life and you’re already looking forward to topping it. 


	7. End Of A Long Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> IT'S CUDDLING AND IT'S ADORABLE THERE IS NO SUMMARY.

Today, like a lot of days, she’s utterly exhausted when she gets home. She heads straight for the couch and collapses into it face-first, muttering about the stress of her classes. And some days all you want to do is take pity on yourself for all the shit you put up with trying to pass as a rustblood, so you make her make space on the narrow couch and lie there, your body language enough to convey that you feel the exact same way as her.

Lying half on top of you, she sighs. “Life," she mumbles. “Yeah," you respond. She runs a hand through your hair and starts rubbing circles around your horns, and you feel like you could melt into her touch. “Today they made us memorize the entire subsection eight of culling procedures. Do you realize how ridiculous that is?"

"Nope," you reply, “but I believe you."

She takes a long breath. “Karkat, I can smell your tiredness."

Your answer is a muffled “Mm-hmm."

You turn over lazily until you’re facing each other, still pressed together on the cramped couch. She kisses your nose. “Sometimes, you’re the only thing in the world that isn’t crazy," she sighs into your sweater. “The rest of the time, you’re crazy too."

"That’s a laugh, coming from the queen of crazy," you reply.

She shoves you away with one hand and pulls you closer with the other. “I distinctly remember making no claims as to my own sanity."

"Anyway," she whispers, burying her face in your neck, “you want to just sleep here? Forget about dinner and potentially about waking up in the morning."

"I hope you make a better legislacerator than that. ‘Let’s just forget about the case, I’m tired and want to sleep with my matesprit. Those criminals don’t really need to be prosecuted, do they?’"

"Oh shut up, you enormous ass." She pulls your shirt collar aside to lick up the side of your neck. “My matesprit, in addition to being my personal space heater, is completely delicious. Dinner, unlike justice, is secondary."

You muss up her hair with your hand, pulling it in front of her eyes, accomplishing nothing. “Fine, you can starve," you say, “but I’m going to go make dinner."

"Oh, don’t be like that." She takes your cheeks in her hands and kisses you.

At one point in your life, you had done your best to convince yourself that making out with Terezi would eventually lose its appeal. So far, life has overwhelmingly proved you wrong. Sure, it’s not the giddy, emotionally oversaturated kissing of when you were seven, but something better is there, you think. But your thoughts are lost in her and your exhaustion, as your tired bodies slide against each other.

You spend a while on the couch, lips locked, bodies pressing against each other. It doesn’t replace the energy the day’s taken from you, but it makes things a little easier. You think you might actually be starting to drift off, when she sits up, rebuttons one of the buttons on her shirt, and announces, “I’m hungry after all. What do you want for dinner?"

You groan. “You’re impossible."

She gives you a peck on the cheek and stands up. “But you like me this way."


	8. Strange Skin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The humans and the trolls swap species. Naturally, Terezi's first priority is finding out what it's like to kiss human!Karkat.

It’s disappointing, but not surprising, that the first thing Karkat wants to do when he finds out that you and the humans have switched species is to figure out a way to change you back. So you go with him down to look at the machines that might be, but probably aren’t, the cause of all this. You waste no opportunity to taste his delicious new chocolate-chip-cookie skin.

"Would you stop goddamn licking me? We both know you’ve figured out what I look like twenty times over by now, and do you realize how unsanitary that is?"

You settle for hugging him around the waist and pressing your nose to his neck. “But when we get turned back, I will lose the this cherry-chocolate deliciousness forever! Your blood comes through your skin so well like this. It is pink and intoxicating and it smells like you.”

He twitches, but doesn’t push you away. “Let’s just get this over with.”

The machines, as you expected, don’t offer much of a clue. “Why are we doing this, anyway?” you ask. “It’s not so bad being human for a while. It’s interesting!”

"Maybe I want my own fucking skin back, is that so hard to imagine? And just wait until you start bleeding all day, you’ll want to get back to your own body too! Did Dave not tell you about that part?"

You don’t know what he’s talking about, but he’s probably just being dramatic. You’d prefer to concentrate on the fact that you’re alone with Karkat, away from everyone else, in bodies that are new and strange and interesting. 

"Hey, Karkat, you know what would be terrible? If we went back to our own selves without ever finding out what it’s like for humans to kiss. Wouldn’t that be awful?"

"What would be terrible is if we never made it back to our own bodies, because we were too worried about teasing each other until we’re driven insane! Now wouldn’t that be terrible! Why do you want to know how humans kiss, anyway? Does Dave tell you you’re not good enough?"

You open your mouth and close it again. You back off and turn away. “Dave has nothing to do with it.”

He doesn’t say anything, but you sense his face fall. “Shit.”

He puts his hand on your shoulder, and when you turn around you barely have time to register the petrified look on his face before he kisses you. 

For a second you’re frozen and awkward, and then you wrap your arms around him and open your mouth, and you fall into place against each other. He stumbles backwards against the equipment and your teeth knock together, and then it’s back to being soft and warm and flush against him, because you can’t feel anything else while your brain is trying to process the fact that Karkat is kissing you, Karkat is kissing you and you are kissing him back and you are so hopelessly flushed for him it’s dizzying. You press against him and breathe in even more of his scent, and he lets out a high whimper which you’re sure is involuntary. After a while, he’s bold enough to run his hands up through your hair and touch the places on your scalp where your horns would be, which nevertheless sets your heart racing even faster than it already is. This is what it feels like to be kissed senseless, you are quite sure of it. 

You probably should have heard Kanaya coming down the hall, but on the other hand, you’re hardly displeased with either of the bright red blushes on their faces. 

You kiss him again. Let the whole meteor know you’re in love with this boy.


	9. Scuttlebuggy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for [PeregrineWilliams](http://archiveofourown.org/users/PeregrineWilliams/pseuds/PeregrineWilliams)'s 19th birthday.

Word of the drones coming around to your area means it’s time to move again. Sollux helps you get things in order: erasing your old records and creating new ones, and then you pack all the possessions you can into your scuttlebuggy and set off for a safer destination.

It’s become almost routine by now, these long trips with Terezi in the passenger seat, doing her best to distract you both from the road which you should be paying attention to, and from the monotony of staring at pavement through the day and night, only stopping to sleep and eat. You once thought you’d need to get off-planet to foil the Empire’s patrols, but experience has taught you that for all their ruthlessness, the Condesce’s lackeys are not particularly organized. When exhaustion starts to tease the corners of your vision, it’s perfectly safe to pull off to the side and rest your eyes.

But Terezi won’t have any of that. She’s understandably much more energetic than you—"You wouldn’t be bouncing around like that if you were the one who had to fucking drive"—so when you shuffle wearily into the back seat (carefully arranged for maximum storage and sleepability), she doesn’t take that as a cue to simply slide in next to you and let you rest.

Once she closes the door she’s practically on top of you, teasing at your lips with your tongue, and you give in to her easily because you both know you want her too. "I don’t think you understand," she says between kisses, "what it’s like to be sitting next to you all night, bored out of my mind, not able to even touch you."

"Lies, you were touching me every ten seconds."

"Aww," she teases, "was poor Karkat distracted?"

"Shut up," you say, lacking a comeback. You let yourself melt into her kisses as she pulls you against her, rough and careless. She’ll never let you forget that even in this shitsack of a world, you’ll always have her.  
  



	10. Dancing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written as a birthday gift for Snow/Tempoes.

“Shush, you’re fine. We have to hurry up!” Terezi tugs at your sleeve, understandably fed up with the way you’ve been fussing with your collar and your hair and your tie for the past ten minutes.

“Does this look okay?” you ask without thinking.

“I wouldn’t know!” she answers cheerful, and you mentally kick yourself. You’d only just started to get used to Terezi being able to see, and then she went and got her blindness back. Slightly more seriously, she takes a long sniff. “Your clothes are fine on you. They would be better off you.”

You mutter something about how she could at least not make worse the fact that you’re embarrassed and uncomfortable about this whole endeavor as you make your way downstairs. Terezi feigns an inability to navigate the staircase on her own, although it’s not as if you mind her leaning on you and using you as a walking stick. Sollux is downstairs by Aradia’s side, looking as profoundly awkward as you feel. Aradia gives you a broad grin. She looks a little  _too_  excited to go to this party.

When you get there, Terezi bolts out onto the dance floor. She bumps asses with Dave and elbows Gamzee in the face before coming back in front of you to dance like a freak. A fast song’s playing, and she doesn’t manage to get you to do much more than sway slowly from side to side, though that doesn’t stop her. Now would be a great time for words. A great time to let everyone know in high-volume detail how much bullshit this is and why the singer’s lusus should be hung out to dry in the sun while being forced to listen to the grotesque shrieking of horrorterrors for the crime of having inflicted such progeny upon the world, but … but you don’t actually feel like ruining Terezi’s good time. Shit, she deserves that much from you at least.

It’s when a slow song comes on and you realize that you’re expected to dance, with your matesprit, in front of just about everyone you know, that you reconsider the option of letting curses spew freely from your mouth. Instead, you take a deep breath and put your arms around her waist and do your best to match the music, small step by small step.

Her arms are around your neck and she’s close and you can feel her breath on your skin and you’re managing to move in time with her and this is romantic, this is so romantic. For a long minute you let yourself feel like you are the romance master, it is you, and when she pulls you in for a kiss you hold her close and kiss back and you don’t screw up. Terezi likes you and she’s here and things are, generally speaking, not awful. And no matter how the rest of the night goes, this will have been alright. You’re not going to screw this up. For her sake.

Still, you don’t really relax until it’s over, but she leans against you in the backseat of the vehicle as you’re on your way home and whispers ‘thank you’. She understands that’s not really your thing and that’s perfectly fine, she says.

And you tell her that, all things considered, it could have been a lot worse.


	11. Sappy As Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written for PeregrineWilliams for Christmas 2013! It’s just really really sappy hurt/comfort-ish fluff in which Karkat and Terezi kiss and cuddle (big surprise) but it’s extremely sweet and cute.

Terezi closes the cover of her husktop and slides into the human bed belonging to her. It’s another too-late day of vague melancholy, and she can’t shake the sense that something is still not quite right. Even after winning the game, after bringing all her enemies to justice, after seeing her lusus one last time and after getting Vriska’s forgiveness, she feels a lingering and inscrutable discontent. She’s supposed to be happy now.

She’s probably just overthinking things; it’s probably just a bad night. She does her best to shake off the feeling as she extinguishes the illumination vessel and pulls the blankets to her chin. There’s no denying she’s much happier now than at her lowest points during the game. She’s safe and happy and surrounded by friends who love her, so much more than when she was scared and alone and crying into bottles of redpop. And she likes herself again: who she is and what she does are points of pride, not shame. She rolls over and hugs a scalemate to her chest, finding reassurance in its soft firmness.

This scalemate in particular is Officer Cherrytongue, one of her most recent creations. His design is full of unsubtle reminders of Karkat, to whom her thoughts have been frequently turning nowadays. She keeps thinking back to their short relationship (if she can even call it that), wondering if things could have been different and turning over what that means for their friendship now, if there’s anything she can do to make it up to him. They haven’t talked about it, leaving them in what feels to her like a weird limbo, but perhaps she’s just imagining things. Maybe he didn’t think it significant enough to need further discussion.

She silently acknowledges that her thoughts of him aren’t all oriented towards problem solving. Sometimes she’s lonely, and likes to think of him being there with her, spouting the cheesy but honest comfort she needs. Maybe if she hadn’t treated him like a fucking toy, maybe if she’d appreciated his goodness and sweetness when she’d had the chance, he would be lying next to her, warm and soft and smelling of cherries. She can almost feel him.

She sighs. It’s pointless, and too depressing, to waste time thinking about things out of her reach.

And yet…. She reaches over onto the desk and opens up her husktop a crack. She smells his icon still lit up; he’s still awake, even more of a daybird than she is. He’s probably pacing the floor in his block at the other end of the hall. An idea crosses her mind, only slightly ridiculous, and she pulls the husktop onto her lap to send him a message.

GC: H3Y K4RK4T, YOU ST1LL 4W4K3?   
CG: YEAH, WHAT’S UP?   
GC: 1 H4V3 K1ND OF 4N ODD R3QU3ST FOR YOU   
CG: WHAT DO YOU WANT?   
GC: COULD YOU COM3 H3R3 FOR 4 F3W M1NUT3S?   
GC: 4ND W3 COULD M4YB3  
GC: UH  
GC: S1T  
GC: TOG3TH3R  
GC: WOULD TH4T B3 OK4Y >:?  
CG: YEAH OF COURSE.  
CG: I’LL BE RIGHT OVER.

She hasn’t really prepared herself for him to actually arrive, so she closes her husktop and jumps out of bed in her boxers to open the door for him. They stare at each other in mutual awkwardness, forgetting what’s supposed to come next.

"The bed’s free," Karkat mumbles, so she leads him over and they sit on it together. He’s dressed in sleep clothes as well—sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt—and it’s comforting to see him as relaxed as he is. She wraps him up in her blankets, and they soon fall over on the bed, sinking into the mattress.

"So this is what you wanted me for?" he asks, blushing visibly.

She nods and pulls him close, breathing in his scent. “We could do other stuff if you really wanted to. But this is what I was asking for.”

He shifts, uncertain. “Other stuff like what?”

She smiles against his sweater. Putting an arm around his head, she pulls him down and pecks him on the lips. “Like that.” She smells his blush deepen as she hides her face back in his sweater.

She can feel as much as hear him take a deep breath. “Terezi…” he mumbles, and nudges her face up to his with picture-perfect gentleness. Even after she’s pulled him into her bed and kissed him once, that slightly cheesy kiss is what sets her bloodpusher going. And when she curls her arms around him she can feel that he’s reacting the same way.

She tries for a deeper kiss at the same time he does, and on their first try their teeth only painfully clack against each other. But on their second try they fit together perfectly. She kisses him, and kisses him more, and somewhere in the tumble of their bodies together she decides she’s maybe found the happiness she’s missed. He runs his hand through her hair and whispers promises in her ear to never let her go. It’s sappy as hell, and she lets it be sappy as hell and lets herself love it. Because she knows for certain, she’s never letting go of him either.


	12. Something Called "Tinsel"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for CelestialToxophilite's birthday.

It takes months for the autumn to give way to winter, but when the first bits of snow start to fall to the ground, melting instantly on the brown grass, the change in everyone’s mood is palpable. Jade is enthralled by it, and she drags you all out of the house to make fools of yourselves trying to catch the flakes on your tongues. She crashes into Dave and they fall over in a jumble of bright colors, Dave sarcastically feigning injury as snow accumulates on top of them.

Kanaya shivers and clings to you until you mutter something about how a goddamn fashion aficionado can’t even dress properly for the weather, and give her your hat and scarf. You even button the horn buttons for her, grumbling over her incompetence, pretending not to relish the opportunity to fuss over your moirail. She zips her coat up to her chin and thanks you for your kindness with a small kiss to the cheek. Rose pulls her away by the arm as you blush a bit, and you think you catch whispered promises to keep her warm in other ways. You can only hope she’s being flirtatious rather than telling her about some occult ritual she’s planning.

Terezi pounces on you from behind without warning, the wet flakes from her hat falling into your hair. “That was sweet of you, giving Kanaya your hat,” she says, “and you know what they say: if you want to be a person’s matesprit, you should look at how they treat their moirail. Also, you did it in the most absurdly grumpy and adorable way possible. Please never change.”

“Not everything I do is adorable,” you protest.

“Yes it is!” she says, kissing you. “And now you need someone to keep you warm, don’t you?” She wraps her arms around you tightly, resting her chin on your shoulder. She blows snowflakes out of your hair and rubs your hands between hers. You can’t imagine loving anyone more than you love her.

It’s Dave’s idea to bring a tree into the house. Apparently the humans have some kind of tree ritual associated with their equivalent of Twelfth Perigee. It takes all of you to make it happen: John and Jade plead with your custodian to give them the money to buy it, the humans go off to some godforsaken small tree farm and return home carrying their prize, and then it takes all of you to rearrange the furniture to fit the damn thing. You appoint yourself leader in charge of this last task. It’s satisfying to be barking orders again, and Terezi doesn’t give you any shit, not one single bit, she just answers your commands with a grin and “Yes, Mr. Brave And Handsome Leader Troll.”

But it turns out that even after you’ve gotten the tree into the room, you’re still not done, because now you have to goddamn decorate the thing, which is apparently a hideously complex process involving all theses little dangly knickknacks and tiny lightbulbs on wires and something called “tinsel”. But you have to admit it is sort of fun, even if Kanaya complains that the tree’s original simple aesthetic was more pleasing and you have to agree that it kind of looks like a mess when you’re done.

You don’t even mind when Terezi gives Dave a kiss on the cheek to celebrate. You are that cool. And besides, you know any minute now she’s going to turn her attention back to you and—

“Karkat, look at this,” she says, dangling some sort of small plant above your head. “It is a human tradition that you must kiss when you find yourself standing under this kind of plant!” She wiggles her eyebrows at you and grins. God, she’s so happy and it makes something inside of you twist in a good way.

You’re pretty sure she’s bullshitting you and she just wants to kiss you (what kind of a dumb culture has a kissing plant, anyway?), but you’re happy to oblige. You cup the back of her head and give her a slow and tender kiss like the fucking romance hero you are. A kiss which she immediately deepens, turning it into a full-on sloppy makeout, but you are the exact opposite of complaining. In fact she kind of pushes you onto the couch and climbs into your lap, and people are definitely watching, but you don’t care one bit. Let them watch and be jealous of your amazing matespritship.

When she’s done with your mouth she settles down next to you, leaning against you and nuzzling into your sweater. Dave flops down on the couch, landing across both of your laps. “This is cool, right? Come on, you can’t just show off your obnoxious PDA like that and neglect to save some affection for the Strider.”

You sputter a bit at the ridiculousness of it (you didn’t even get a chance to adjust your jeans), but Terezi just says, “Yes, of course,” and starts ruffling his hair. “You can be our human baby.”

“Hell yeah,” Dave replies. But in the next moment Jade decides that you and Terezi are giving Dave too much attention. She climbs up onto the troll/human pile and lies on top of Dave, giving him a kiss on the nose.

“Oof,” you protest, but that’s your only protest, because being smothered by humans doesn’t actually seem like that bad a fate right now. John decides to come sit next to you, leaning against you and Dave, and Sollux and Aradia somehow end up over by Terezi (you’re sure there are psionics involved, because they are definitely not sitting on enough couch to support their weight).

“Come on, Kanaya,” says Rose. “It would be remiss of us to leave such an absurd pile of people incomplete. For a moment you worry that they’re going to try to get on top of Jade somehow, which would definitely crush you, but they sit down in front of the couch instead, Kanaya’s head between your knees and Rose’s resting against Dave’s.

Terezi pulls her arm free of the pile and puts it around your shoulders, pulling you a bit closer. You swear you’re going to be smothered in humans and trolls. But you doubt you’d have it any other way.


End file.
